Illuminate
by Clap-For-Carolyn
Summary: Alex is almost dead after Mt. Aleph, and muses on the mistakes he's made. Everyone else discovers something they didn't know about the power of the Golden Sun, and the new Guardians of the Elements have been chosen. Post TLA, Alex X Felix, others?
1. Chapter 1

He lays there broken, gasping, barely breathing and bleeding. The light from the pulsating second sun above him is a blinding purgatory. It seems to mock him in all its golden glory.

'_You couldn't contain me.' _It laughs. _'You're too weak. You're too weak to possibly be able to control that much power…'_

'…_and you're too much of coward to tell them the truth!" _A nasty voice in his head snaps. _'You've really messed things up this time.'_

He's half covered in crushing rocks, and _damn_, it hurts. Several ribs are definitely broken, there's red running in to his eyes, and his left arm wasn't meant to bend in that direction. His skin felt like it was on fire, but why? He was so cold inside…

"I'm such a fool…"

The essence of four elements couldn't possibly be contained in one body. The Wise One had actually done him a favor by sealing the power of fire in to the Mars Star. It most likely would have killed him if that giant rock thing hadn't intervened. The other three elements however where still warring within him.

Water was trying valiantly to save him, to heal him. Wind wasn't so bad- It just wanted room to breathe. It was Earth that was eating him alive.

He chuckled at the irony, regretted it with a hiss of pain, and spiraled in to despair with the brief image of a soft, silent smile.

"I'm so _stupid."_

-**There are not many that would argue with that logic, Alex-**

He opened his azure eyes, trying to focus through the agony and madness. In truth the only thing holding back the power crazed insanity from before was the pain.

"…shut up, you giant rock thing." He mentally kicked himself. Like that was the most intelligent thing he could have said.

**-It seems your mind is deteriorating as fast as your body is.-** The Wise One hovered above him, ominous and benevolent at the same time. **–But I do note that you're seeing things a little clearer now. Your ignorance to the consequences prompted your boldness and bravery, and you believed your actions had good intentions behind them, in which you where not entirely wrong… –**

"Are you going to rub it in my face all day, or can I please die in peace?" Alex muttered darkly. "Or you can finish what you started earlier."

**-Alex of Imil, you cannot die. You will survive.-**

He barely heard him, already drifting back in to unconsciousness.

* * *

"...ex!"

Someone was calling him again.

"Alex!"

Oh, for the love of Mercury, you'd think someone who was so wise would leave him alone already!

"Alex, don't you dare die on me!"

Wait… that voice was familiar, but it wasn't the highly annoying omnipotent entity. And it was too full of emotion to belong to someone that boring.

Someone was holding him. He was being held against something warm and soft… and that felt familiar too. Alex felt warm moisture hit his neck and face. They couldn't possibly be crying, and crying over _him_ of all people, could they?

"You idiot." Whoever it was sobbed softly. "You goddess damned idiot!"

Oh. Alex had a pretty fair idea of who it was now. He forced his eye open a bit to make sure. Oh hell, and he was right too. He had selfishly hoped that he wouldn't have to confront this particular person.

But he was as beautiful as ever, with his chocolate eyes and long brown hair, illuminated from behind by the newly risen Golden Sun. He was upset, he looked worried about him, and Alex knew he didn't deserve any of it. He closed his own eyes, unable to look at those sad ones anymore.

"C'mon, Alex. Stay with me." A hand was gently stroking his hair. "Please stay with me."

"How is he?"

Great. _Mia. _Wasn't fate just kicking him in the teeth today?

"I don't know… He's just…"

"I'll see what I can do. Ply!"

Good ole Mia. Always willing to help the masses. Too bad he didn't have a chance to tell her he already tried to heal himself earlier and it didn't work-

He cried out and thrashed as his body painfully rejected her psynergy. Felix's arms clamped down and held him tight.

"P-please don't d-do that." Alex managed to stammer out. He was shaking violently now, and Felix had not yet released his death grip. "Not going to work…"

"Alex? What's going on? Why won't it work?"

That's a very good question. It'd be nice if he knew the answer.

Others where gathering around them now. He could feel the pulses of their psynergy and their low whispering voices.

"Felix!" that had to be Jenna. "What's wrong with him?"

"We don't know, I… I…" Was that an edge of panic to Felix's voice? The last time Alex had heard him like that was after he had pulled Felix out of an icy creek back in Prox. The boy obviously wasn't fond of water.

**-I believe I can provide an explanation.-** The Wise One suddenly appeared above their heads.

"…not you again." Alex groaned.

The Wise One pointedly ignored him and instead addressed the other adepts present.

**-Alex foolishly tried to absorb the power of the Golden Sun in to himself. As he has found out, one body, particularly one aligned to a specific element, cannot contain the forces of all four elements. It leads only to madness and death.-**

"Then why isn't he dead?"

-**I sealed the element of fire in to the Mars Star at the last minute. That is why he still lives. But he won't for much longer in his current state.-**

He felt Felix stiffen against him and sucked in a sharp breath. "What do you mean?"

-**There are still two foreign elements contained in his body. They cannot be contained inside a body not aligned to them. If they remain, they will destroy him from the inside out.-**

"Then what's the problem?" someone remarked coldly. "Alex hasn't done anything good for us, and he tried to steal ultimate power!"

They could at least try not to talk about him like he wasn't there. He hadn't slighted anyone on purpose, he only attempted to claim the power before if fell in to the wrong hands… Isaac and Felix had inadvertently started rumors about the coming return of alchemy, and within the week they'd probably have to deal with ambition crazed lunatics. Alex would admit that maybe he had gotten a little carried away and the whole 'Lets raze Vale!' mindset afterward wasn't exactly pleasant, but had at least _tried_ to do the right thing.

**-His methods where a little outside of the lines, but Alex was on the right track.-** The Wise One continued. **–When you all returned, I was going to inform you of the ancient responsibility you have unlocked. When alchemy ruled the world, there were four guardians of the four elements, four adepts who were charged with the task of keeping things from getting out of hand. They stood watch over the land and over the Golden Sun.-**

The Wise One stopped for a moment**. - …Now that you have chosen to unleash alchemy, you much chose who will keep the balance. Once a Guardian is set to an element, they are tied to it for life. The Guardian of Mercury has already been chosen.-**

"Alright." Hmm, that was…. Isaac! Boy, he was getting good at this name game. "What do we have to do?"

**-Two men and two women, one for each element. This will ensure the balance.-**

"Well, we've already got one guy, and all our earth adepts _are_ guys, sooooo… It comes down to Isaac and Felix for Venus."

Wow. They sure decided things fast. One minute they wanted to leave him for dead, the next they were jumping on the chance for a part of the prize. Maybe he should stop thinking… All this internal commentary was making his head hurt.

"W-wait! Shouldn't we be thinking this through?"

"No time." Mia replied. "He's not going to last much longer."

**-If the elements do not have a successor for their power, they will be lost.-**

He felt Felix nod. "Isaac should-"

"No, Felix." Isaac cut him off. "You'd be much better than me. You're a lot stronger than I am."

"But-"

"Don't argue Felix. I think you'd win if we had a group vote anyway."

"But… I… Fine." Alex grinned in spite of himself. Felix was just so cute when he was flustered.

"Then the only other adepts that qualify are me and Jenna." Sheba said as she stepped forward. "Two girls and two boys, right?"

**-Correct. Take the Mars Star and join your hands.-**

Felix's hand slipped in to his right, but Alex couldn't quite bite back a whimper as white hot fire raced up his left.

"…Sorry!"

Alex gritted his teeth and willed himself to stay conscious. The Wise One hovered directly above their circle now, and he was glowing with energy. It started a chain reaction that started to literally rip the other elements out of him. At least, that's what it felt like. The light that poured out of the four of them was unbearably bright and intense.

He didn't even realize he'd been screaming until it was all over and- _damn_, now his throat hurt too. Today was just not his day.

Alex was choking on air, mere moments from passing out again, when Felix inconspicuously kissed him.

"It's over…" The new Guardian of Venus murmured against him. "It's over."

If only it was true. But it didn't matter as everything sunk in to black.

* * *

…To be continued? Maybe? I apologize for massive out of character-ness. I've never actually written GS fanfiction before. That old story in my archives is one my cousin and I wrote, but it was mostly her.

I've wanted to write a Golden Sun fanfiction since I got the game like seven years ago. I've always liked Alex, and I'm bias to Felix because I played The Lost Age first. XD I love the two of them so much!

Hence why I can't make Alex evil. Misguided, yes. Evil I IS GONNA TAKE OVER DA WORLDS AND RAPE JUU, nooooooo. I kinda cry when people make him out to be this horrible, unbelievably cruel and sadistic bad guy. I'll be the first one to admit he can come across as an egotistical prick, BUT REALLY GUYS.

:cough: Right then. I may write more when I'm sick again. For some reason, I need to be diseased to be able to write. And this whole thing is SO crack in a can… WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME?!??!?!

Yo, if anyone who happens to come across this and wants to use this ending for their own work, feel free to use and abuse. But credit is always nice! :heart:

LONG LIVE THE ALEX X FELIX.

….And the Piers X Felix. We need moar of both!


	2. Chapter 2

The tome Sheba had her arms wrapped around was enormous, heavy, and looked like it had seen better days. The leather binding was cracking and peeling away from the book itself, which had allowed moisture and moths to get in to the ancient pages. Thankfully it was still legible enough to be deciphered. Or at least that's what she hoped.

At the moment Sheba was hurrying from far end of Vault to the bell tower where she knew Piers was likely hiding. The local priests had dug out this book that they assumed might have something to do with the new Guardians of the Elements, but they lacked the knowledge to read its faded text. They were hoping that it was written in a language that a Lumerian might be able to translate. She looked down at the book that she held, and it looked for all the world like it was about to fall apart any minute. Sheba sprinted up the stairs to the bell tower loft. True to her original hunch, he was there, leaning on a support beam while overlooking the sleepy town.

"Piers!" she gasped for breath, "I've got it!" Sheba collapsed on the floor and dropped the book in front of her.

Piers gave the molding tome a questioning look. "Hasn't anyone ever thought to keep important documents in some place other than the cellar?"

"The priests said that they can't read it." She sighed as she opened it up. "So I don't think preserving a book written in a dead language was on the top of their 'to-do' list."

"It's not a dead language yet." Piers said indignantly, "It's clearly an early form of Lumerian, not that it's really changed all that much in thousands of years."

"So you can read it?"

"What doesn't have holes in it, yes." He sat down next to her and took the book in to his own hands. "We're looking for anything referring to elemental guardians, correct?"

"Mmhmm." Sheba peeked over his shoulder as he flipped through the pages. Even though she had no idea what all the strange characters meant, the detailed illustrations gave a vague idea as to what was going on. It really was a shame it hadden't been kept in better condition.

"How's everyone doing?" Piers asked offhandedly as he skimmed paragraphs. Sheba shrugged in return.

"Okay for the most part. Well, not really. It's hard to tell when everyone has such strong and mixed emotions- And then they _broadcast_ them and I can't hear myself think!"

"Haven't got quite a handle on your new found power yet?" Piers was smiling, and that strange but wonderful feeling came over her and her stomach did a little flip.

"S-something like that."

He went back to reading and Sheba prayed to which ever god was listening that she wasn't turning red. She'd always liked Piers, from the first time in Madra, and then in the shadows of a tribal ceremony, and then with the group out on the open sea… Sure, there had been that brief puppy crush she had on Felix when Saturos and Menidari had kidnapped her. That had dissolved soon after when she accidentally mind read him, and her head had been filled with some images that had made her flush, like she probably was right now.

That was the problem with being a Jupiter Adept. It was hard sometimes to filter out unwanted content when poking around in someone else's head. And Sheba had thought it was bad enough before when she'd get random flares of emotions, or a memory that obviously wasn't hers when she was around other adepts- It had to be five times worse now that she was the Guardian of Jupiter.

Alex was still out cold after Mount Aleph. So Felix was stressed, Mia was simultaneously worried and pissed and overjoyed, and Jenna was worried about Felix and pissed at Alex for making them worry, Isaac and Garret where on edge because Mia was in a bad mood and apparently she wasn't one to anger in such a state, Ivan was still very, very confused over just about everything and he was a little hurt that everyone was being so snappy when he just wanted an answer to why everyone was so upset, and then Felix was also being more sulky than usual which was causing his parents to worry and then they were talking to everyone else's parents and-

Sheba held her head in her hands and groaned.

"What's wrong?"

"Everyone's still freaking out. I swear I'm going to go crazy soon if they all don't shut up."

Piers chuckled and threw and arm around her shoulders. "Don't worry about it. I'm sure there's something in here than can help."

* * *

Felix had barely moved for two days. He sat in the same chair in the same corner of the small room, with his knees drawn up to his chest with his chin resting on them. Jenna had come in multiple times to complain that he needed to go get some rest in a real bed and someone would come let him know if sleeping beauty woke up and-

"No." he grumbled, again. "I'm not leaving."

Jenna stood in front of him with her hands on her hips, glaring down with an intensity that could have lighted a fire if she had willed it. He ignored her.

"Felix, it won't kill you to go lay down for a few hours, but just sitting there forever might!" becoming the Guardian of Mars had done nothing to improve her classic fire adept attitude. Jenna was still full of attitude, passionate about what she believed in, and had one of the most easily set off tempers. Felix fully appreciated that she cared about him and was honestly worried for him, he really did. But it wasn't nearly enough to change his mind.

"No."

She threw up her hands in frustration then stomped out of the room in a rage, slamming the door behind her so hard he always thought it was going to fall right off the hinges. But it didn't matter much as the man on the bed next to him didn't even stir, and Felix went back to what people had began calling 'sulking in the dark'. He had said he wasn't going to leave until Alex woke up and anything short of a worldwide apocalypse was not going to move him from this spot.

The fallen Mercury adept wasn't the only reason he refused to leave, surprisingly enough. It was spring again in Vault, and every time Felix tried to venture outside it was _suffocating. _Sure, as earth was his element he was used to the sensation of knowing when plants where in bloom and when the ground was thawing out- This was so much more intense than any of those barely there sensations. It was a sensory overload last time he stepped outside, with everything coming at him all at once and with no way to sort it all out so it made any sense. At least in here, inside a man made home made of processed objects that where 'dead' by an organic viewpoint, his head didn't hurt so much.

And he had an excuse to stay by his side.

* * *

"Duck and cover."

"What-"

Isaac pulled Garret behind a house just in time to avoid the raging Jenna who stormed by. She was mumbling and cursing about one thing and another, kicking stones out of her path with a vengeance. The pair hid behind the brick house until they could no longer hear the temperamental Mars adept. Isaac peeked around the corner first just to make sure.

"What was _that_ all about?"

"Beats me. Any little thing seems to set her off lately." Isaac frowned. "And I can't help but feel as if we're not done with this alchemy issue yet."

Garret groaned. "Aw, c'mon! Didn't we already do what we were supposed to?"

"We where originally told _not _to light the Lighthouses. Look how that turned out." Isaac sighed, looking at the giant gold orb that hung in the sky where Mount Aleph used to be. "I just hope we can handle this.

* * *

/AN:

Hey guys! Guess what? Golden Sun: Dark Dawn is coming out for the DS at Christmas! I'm so excited! 8D

…I think I know where I'm going with all of this. O.o Maybe. We'll see. I'm also working on a huuuuuuge fic for the Black Jack anime fandom, and I kinda want to finish my Cyborg 009 one that's been dragging on for decades. ::shrugs:: Something will get done eventually.

I want to thank _**Osprey Eamon**_ for the amazing review. I'm glad someone agrees on me with the Alex sentiment. It's really depressing that people set him up as the unforgivably evil bad guy in their fics. I mean, I see the _torture_ warning on some of them! That really bothers me… I'm replaying through both games now and I still can't find anything supporting that view point. ::sigh:: I'll keep my eye out for anything I might have missed though. I might also just have to use some of your suggestions! (I lol'd so bad at evil undead Babi. XD )

And thank you _**Phantom Thief Zel**_ for reviewing as well! 8D I'm totally with you there! I did happen upon the Felix and Piers community here on FF today and I was surprised to find more fanbase than I thought had existed. Unfortunately, I'm still having trouble finding Alex and Felix, so I feel like I'll be writing more of them in the future. XD I have this attraction to characters that have the potential for good but do so many bad, bad things. :3

Thanks for reading! ::heart::


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